Individual Spaces
Overview
Having spaces where students can go supports self-regulation and individual deliberate practice. Individual spaces serve as places for students to focus on their work or take care of their emotional needs, rejoining the group when they are ready.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how these teachers introduce the idea of creating individual spaces in the classroom. Through their examples, they demonstrate how individual spaces support students with their Emotion regulation and Sensory Integration.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Mindfulness apps, like Calm, support Emotion regulation for learners. Students can choose from a variety of activities or meditations, which support increased focus. This video demonstrates the bubble breath exercise where students try to match their breath with the expansion and contraction of a bubble, giving them the time and space to regain control of their emotions.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Physical Space Strategies
Dim or natural lighting provides a calming environment.
Multiple tables and chairs on wheels allow for setting up the classroom to support the desired learning outcomes of each classroom activity.
Multiple display spaces promote collaboration by allowing groups to share information easily as they work.
Multiple writing surfaces promote collaboration by allowing groups to share information easily as they work.
Decreasing extra audio input provides a focused learning environment.
Books for vision differences support reading development for learners with visual needs.
Reading materials of varying complexity and levels are necessary for all students to experience success.
Providing varied types of resources that align with interests of individual students supports overall literacy development.
With figurative language and creative sentence structure, poetry supports the development of a deeper understanding of the different ways language makes meaning.
Books on social and emotional learning (SEL) topics, such as developing empathy and productive persistence, help teach these skills.
Providing ways for students to adjust sound level supports individual auditory needs.
Providing ways for students to meet their individual temperature needs supports Attention and Inhibition & Self-Regulation.
Spaces that are structured, organized, and clean provide increased room for collaboration and active learning.
